Possible pregnancy please help

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into_my_web

Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
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15
Location
canada
My rat has nine two week old pups and I think she may be pregnant again. I've only had the male and female together once since the pups were born and it was only for a few minutes because I had to clean both of their cages and give them a bath. I'm not sure if she's pregnant but she's gaining weight lately and making nests again. I really would like some advice because if she is pregnant I need to know what will happen to the two week old pups she now has. Could my rat just be getting pudgy because storing milk? Or is that unlikely?
Please help me.
Sorry If I posted this in the wrong area, I wasn't sure. I'm new.
 
It only takes seconds for a male to impregnate a female. They should never ever be together. This will be very hard on this girl if she's pregnant again.
She will wean the first litter at a very young age... Make sure you feed her lots of high protein foods like chicken, tuna, eggs. She will need all her strength now.
Keeping two sexes in the same home is just asking for trouble. Any chance you can rehome the males or have them all neutered?
 
You would need separate cages, at other ends of a huge home, with many locked doors to be safe. And only you ever handling them and never making a mistake. Like you've just recently done.

It is EXTREMELY unsafe to have both sexes in the same home, and even the most experienced owners can have an accident or make a mistake. I really hope you'll reconsider keeping both sexes.

As Jo said, mom will wean the current two week olds short before she gives birth. They'll need to be moved into a separate cage.

Are your cages going to be BIG enough for all these rats? Because your numbers are about to really jump.
 
Was Dad with Mom when she gave birth? The females go into heat right after birth and that's when a lot of people get caught. There's a delayed implantation so she likely won't give birth until 28 days or more to give the present litter a chance to survive. BUT they will still be weaned at 4 weeks of age, or even less which is not good, and its very very hard on mom to have what is called back-to-back litters. You need to give her a ton of healthy good food to keep her strength up with the pregancy and her milk and condition up with her current litter. What are you feeding her right now?

If you plan on keeping both the sexes, different floors/rooms with doors etc.

The male should Never be with the female, you will have no clue when she is in heat, and they go into heat every 4-5 days.
 
lilspaz68 said:
Was Dad with Mom when she gave birth? The females go into heat right after birth and that's when a lot of people get caught. There's a delayed implantation so she likely won't give birth until 28 days or more to give the present litter a chance to survive. BUT they will still be weaned at 4 weeks of age, or even less which is not good, and its very very hard on mom to have what is called back-to-back litters. You need to give her a ton of healthy good food to keep her strength up with the pregancy and her milk and condition up with her current litter. What are you feeding her right now?

If you plan on keeping both the sexes, different floors/rooms with doors etc.

The male should Never be with the female, you will have no clue when she is in heat, and they go into heat every 4-5 days.
Click to expand...

No, I wasn't thinking. I let them out together while I was cleaning out their cages and I also bathed them.
I have two very large ferret cages that I will be keeping in a barn.
 
lilspaz68 said:
A barn? Is this a temperature controlled barn?

What are you feeding her? Then we can figure out what you need to supplement her diet with.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is fully insulated and has heaters.
During her pregnancy I was feeding her hard boiled eggs. I was told that was ideal for a pregnant rat.
Now I feed her cereal, her normal food and dried fruit treats.
 
I suggest switching to something higher quality, as those are not. I would suggest either oxbow regal rat which you can get in some small stores or harlan teklad which you must order online or even hamster extrusion/hagan blocks are good for rats too. SunSeed isnt a very good brand.
 
Her diet should consist of a good quality lab block (Harlan Tech 2014 or 2018, Oxbow Regal rat, or Living World/Hagen hamster extrusian block) always available in a dish, daily vegs, supplemented several times a day with baby cereal mixed up with soy infant formula, ensure or water (without chlorine or fluoride), a bit of boiled egg, and other high protien foods.

As she weans the babies they will start eating the baby cereal, etc. They will need to be supplemented with baby cereal .... many people do it until they are two or 3 months old. Depending on the lab block you are feeding, you may want to make it into a mush for babies and mom, in addition to feeding the solid block. Babies will need a shallow water dish as they will not be srong enough to get water out of a water bottle for a long time, although they may look like they can.

Baby boys will need to be separated from sisters at 5 weeks of age so no more pregnancies. Depending on your rats, baby boys may not be able to be introduced in with their dad until 9 or 10 weeks old. That way they will be old enough to defend themselves. Intros need to be gradual. Sometimes adult rats view babies as prey and will kill them.

You don't need to wash rats. They are like cats and keep themselves clean. Some people will wash a male rat every few months because of the buck grease. Sometimes elderly rats will need help with bathing. Can't think of any other reason to bath a rat. Bathing rats isn't good for them.

If you plan on keeping both sexes, you will need to have one sex neutered or spayed. Also, if wild rats can get into your barn they could get the girls pregnant or attack the boys. Rats are usually kept in the busiest room in the house so that they receive a lot of interaction with people.

I am sure you are aware that you need to be handling the babies daily to socialize them.

The bar spacing on ferret cages will be too large for baby rats, young rats and some girls. Suggest you purchase critter nation cages.
 
There are a few mixes that some reputable rat people make, but it is complicated to make and uses ingredients that you may not have on hand at home. Also with your numbers jumping so quickly, your best option would be to get some high quality food blocks. As for the mom, like Jorats said, lots of high protein foods like chicken, tuna and eggs.
 
into_my_web said:
Is there any household food I could feed her?
Click to expand...

Other than eggs and chicken etc...nope. You need to get some high quality blocks for her.

And SQ made an excellent response with some great info.

So now you need: high quality food, lots of protein, spay/neuter one of the sexs, huge cages with small bar spacing which would be a critter nation and we suggest not keeping them in the barn just to be safe.

And lastly, if you arnt gonna keep all these babies then you need to find good homes for them. When looking for homes you need to ask the people that are interested tons of questions so you know that they are good to good homes and good homes only.
 
SQ said:
The bar spacing on ferret cages will be too large for baby rats, young rats and some girls. Suggest you purchase critter nation cages.
Click to expand...
I've put thick wooden things around the cage's bars so they cannot get out. It's like thick wood sheets kind of. They wouldn't be able to climb it.
 
into_my_web said:
SQ said:
The bar spacing on ferret cages will be too large for baby rats, young rats and some girls. Suggest you purchase critter nation cages.
Click to expand...
I've put thick wooden things around the cage's bars so they cannot get out. It's like thick wood sheets kind of. They wouldn't be able to climb it.
Click to expand...

Rats can chew through wood.
Doesn't that interfere with ventilation?
People with too large bar spacing cover their cages with wire.
For example: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10018
 

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